


Robin the Swallow

by imadonut



Category: DreamSMP, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Adoption, Also Corpse knew Robin's dad, Cornelius/Dream, Corpse went blind from the war, Dream Smp, Dream and Corpse are "partners", Gen, No one dies (yet) so yaaay, Robin/Tubbo, So they're a couple then, Tales Of The SMP, The Village That Went Mad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28645368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imadonut/pseuds/imadonut
Summary: Robin sees Corpse as a surrogate father figure, but how did these two come to meet, and why are they so close? This is my take on their bond, as well as Robin getting unofficially adopted by Corpse and (kinda) Cornelius and how it happened.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 85





	Robin the Swallow

**Author's Note:**

> This is all based on The Village That Went Mad steam, and although there are no spoilers in her (yet), I'd advice you to go watch it, since not only will it make reading this easier to understand, but also it's just really good and I bet you'd enjoy it!

The SMP has always been absolute shit for orphans. 

Robin knew this from a young age, before he’d become an orphan himself. After his mother died, when he was too young to remember her name, this had been a concern. He’d been too young to remember, but he’d seen what happened to other orphans. There was a reason he was the only child in his village. When you’re young and have no one looking out for you, natural selection came into play. The town only had so many rations. 

This is why, when he heard his father was being drafted for war, he’d taken up a position in medicine, to learn how to heal. He couldn’t lose his father, he knew what happened to orphans, this was his only parent left. He didn’t want to end up like the others.

His father died anyway. Although he’d tried, Robin was once again powerless to stop it. Killed in the war, one infected wound too many. He’d held his father’s hand as he’d died, staring into the dulled eyes of the only family he had left. 

Somehow, even after this, Robin tried to be optimistic. Things weren’t so bad! At that point he was old enough that he could fend for himself, he was luckier than many of the other orphans, anyway. Orphaned in spring, and not winter. Gave him plenty of time to prepare, at least. He had that going for him, as well as the medical knowledge he’d learned in an attempt to save his father. He could actually put it to good use this time, hopefully. 

Robin tried to stay optimistic. But rations started to slim, less and less for the people of the town. After a few weeks of low food, Robin found his rations cut all together for several days at a time. The average human can live up to three weeks without food, and knowing this fact was the only thing keeping him going. 

But when his time without rations started to reach a week and a half, he started to really feel the effects of starvation. He was thin, he felt shaky and weak all the time, and cold. Winter was still a few months away, and yet walking out into the streets made him shiver. He was dying, and he needed food. He needed it now.

Robin didn’t like stealing. He may be an orphan, and he may be hungry and poor, but he still feels bad for this. If the stuff isn’t his, he shouldn’t be taking it! He shouldn’t, he knows this, yet here he is. Starving, and preparing to steal from a blind man’s house. 

Yeah, it wasn’t his proudest moment, but he estimated that he had four days of no rations at most before he fully collapses. It was either this or risk dying. It wasn’t like the blind man could fight back even if Robin was caught. Kinda messed up thinking, but he’s dying and no one bothered to help him or even notice he was even there 90% of the time. A small, bitter part of him felt like someone deserved this. Maybe not the blind guy specifically, but _someone_. So, he told himself to suck it up, survival of the fittest, then headed in,

Thanks to his unhealthily skinny nature, Robin was able to slip through the house’s window with ease, light steps tip-toeing through the house as he searched for food like a hungry rodent. He carefully slid open a few barrels, eyes lighting up and mouth watering when he found several loaves of bread at the bottom. Enough to last two grown men for at least a week or two. Thankfully, he was a small malnourished teenage boy, so he only needed maybe one loaf to last him a week. He reaches in and pulls out the bread, gripping it tightly and almost immediately making a break for it. Didn’t want to take his chances getting caught by staying too long.

In his haste to leave, however, Robin didn’t notice his shirt getting caught onto a table near the kitchen, and was yanked backwards as he tried to run. He fell to the ground heavily, a loud thud resonating through the house as he did. Robin froze, bread still in hand, and he waited for something, a sigh or movement of someone waking up. There was nothing, so Robin scrambled back up for the window.

As he was maybe a foot or two away from the window, he felt himself get yanked back again. This time however, it was not by his clothes stuck on the corner of furniture, but a hand. Robin is pulled and forced to face what he could make out in the dark as a white mask and a lime green nightgown. Although he couldn’t see this person’s face, he could tell they were pissed. 

“The hell are you doing in my house?” He yells, pulling the orphan boy closer to his “face”. The boy simply cowers back.

“S-sorry! Sorry! I thought this was my house! All the houses in this town look _really_ similar, wouldn’t you say?.” He’s under pressure right now, so his lying isn’t exactly the best.

“I see that bread in your hands kid, don’t lie to me.” The green-clad man forcefully yet somehow calmly speaks to the thief, then yanks the bread from Robin’s hands, rendering his theft attempt useless.

“Thought you could steal from a blind guy, eh? I think I’ll let the mayor figure out what to do with you.” He adds with a sneer as he starts to drag Robin to his door, presumably to turn him in to get jailed and punished accordingly for theft, which Robin loudly objects to.

“Wait- no! No please don’t take me there I can’t go to jail! I’ll put the bread back I promise just don’t take me to prison!!” Robin pleaded, trying to wiggle or drag his way out of this man’s grasp. They don’t feed the prisoners and the only reason he was here was for food. If this man took him to prison, Robin would die.

As Robin squirmed, making the process that much more difficult for the masked man, the noise must’ve woken someone else in the house up, as suddenly there as a set of footsteps down the hall. The masked man froze. Both him and Robin looked up to see someone Robin actually recognized, standing in the doorway. _Ah, so there’s the blind man._

In front of Robin and the green guy was a man with brown hair and cat ears, faded blue eyes and a cane in front of him. His dull blue eyes had a long since faded burn scar over them, likely the cause of the faintness in the color and sight of the eyes. His hand was on the wall next to him, and his eyes were staring vacantly in the direction of the other two in his house.

“Cornelius? What’s going on?” The man asked in a much deeper voice than Robin was anticipating. After a moment of hesitation, the man in the mask spoke.

“Don’t worry, it was just a rat, Corpse. You can go back to sleep.” He was oddly calm for someone holding a squirming kid. A kid who was making too much noise for Corpse not to notice, one of his cat ears flicking at the sound.

“Someone else is there.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Cornelius sighed, keeping Robin a hold, but pulling him away from the door and into the house, closer to Corpe.

“Sorry. This kid tried stealing our food while we were sleeping, I thought I could take care of it before you woke up, guess the little shit made too much noise-” Cornelius grunted as Robin elbowed him in the ribs, forcing him to drop the kid. Robin fell to the ground, scrambling to his knees. He found the bread Cornelius had dropped, and pulled it to his chest. When he finally looked up from the floor, however, he saw himself face to face with an oddly intimidating looking blind man, glaring down at him. Robin reeled back quickly, his back hitting a chair and Cornelius started to close in on him again.

“Wait, stop! Please don’t bring me in, I just- I’m so hungry. I’m sorry, I’ll never bother you again, I can leave and you’ll never have to see me again, promise! Just let me go and I’ll be gone!” Robin pleads, shoving the loaf of bread under his hat and raising his arms up defensively.

“Just use your own rations! We got this food ourselves, there’s no need for you to be stealing out stuff!” Cornelius reasoned, and started to walk towards Robin again, ready to snatch the bread he very clearly saw Robin hide under his hat. 

“I-I can’t! They cut off my supply over a week ago, I’m starving! Please, you gotta understand where I’m coming from.” Robin attempted to appeal to their empathy. Guilt tripping was a new low for him, but he was desperate. He was willing to stoop a little low right now.

“Uh huh, sure. A few nights in jail will do you some good, maybe you’ll learn your lesson and make your parents’ life a hell of a lot easier when you get back.” He’s ready to pull Robin back up again, but is interrupted by Corpse, holding a hand as a gesture for him to stop.

“Hold on a second. Kid, are you Phil’s son?” Corpse asked, taking a few steps closer to Robin. Upon hearing his deceased father’s name, Robin frowned sadly, looking down at his knees.

“Used to be…” He mumbled, apparently loud enough for Corpse to hear, as his expression morphed into one of realization, then to soft understanding.

“Cornelius, let the kid keep the bread.”

Cornelius turned sharply to look at Corpse, indignant eyes behind the stark-white mask.

“Wait, what? You can’t be serious, the kid’s probably lying! He just wants extra food, a few days in jail are probably what he needs.” He tried to convince the other man, who simply hummed, grabbing his cane with thoughtfulness behind his unseeing blue eyes. His scarred fingers tapping on his cane as he mulled over something. He seemed to come to a conclusion, standing up straight and looking to Dream.

“On second thought, the kid’s staying here with us. Kid’s an orphan, and I knew his dad. I kinda owe him a solid anyway.”

“WHAT?! No no no, he’s leaving now-”

“He’s staying with us Cornelius.” Corpse’s doesn’t raise his voice, but somehow still shuts Cornelius up, leaving the other man stuttering in disbelief. Corpse gestured for Robin to follow with his hand, picking his cane up and turning to the hall.

“C’mere kid. Been meaning to do something with our extra room anyway.” He waits for Robing to make some kind of noise behind him to indicate he was following.

In this situation, Robin could do nothing but shrug, forcing back a smug yet extremely confused grin off of his face as he passed Cornelius. Robin had basically no idea what was going on, but a hunger blurred brain and the aspect of having a warm and fully stocked place to stay overruled any logical judgment of this random blind man offering him an open room. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, he supposed. 

Robin followed Corpse down his hall, leaving a slightly pissed off and very confused and conflicted Cornelius behind. For as long as they’ve lived together, Cornelius could never stay mad at Corpse.

But they would definitely need to have a talk about this in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Woah you read it all, nice! Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! I also really appreciate comments, so if you have anything to say, positive or negative, please comment it! I love reading what you guys have to say about the stuff I write!


End file.
